Its most significant recent volcanic eruption was about 15,700 years ago and this deposited the widespread Rotorua tephra that reached beyond Auckland.

[7][8] The Northern Dome, just to the east of Lake Tikitapu formed 25,171 ± 964 years ago[9] in the Te Rere rhyolite eruption which also had other vents in the Ōkataina Volcanic Complex.

[2] As far back as 1839 a German explorer Dr Ernst Dieffenbach described near Rotoroa the first recorded description of layered tephras from ash fall in New Zealand.

Such a series as published in 1990 (so the dates may have been modified by scientific discourse since) reads (with some translation from original jargon) :[13] The impact on the Waikato region must have been marked as lake sediment from near Hamilton, New Zealand shows evidence of very active plant turnover just before almost 5 cm (2.0 in) of tephra is deposited from the Rotorua event.

[14] A repeat of the Rotorua eruption with its ash distribution against the prevailing winds but towards the major population centres of Rotoroa, Hamilton and Auckland would be very destructive and disruptive.